An explosive century from Brendan Taylor wasn't enough for
Wellington to beat Otago, who made relatively short work of
the Firebird's good score of 170 for three in their HRV Cup
Twenty20 cricket match in Queenstown today.
The Zimbabwean import smacked 101 off 58, an innings that
included eight fours and five sixes, but watched on as Otago
cruised past Wellington's total with eight balls to spare.
Dimitri Mascarenhas (41 off 25 balls), Aaron Redmond (48 off
42) and Brendon McCullum (36 off 20) put Otago in a strong
position before Craig Cumming (29 not out) and Neil Broom (10
not out) completed the job.
They doused the threat of Sri Lankan spinner Muttiah
Muralitharan, who went for a relatively miserly 20 runs for
one wicket in his four overs, but were often brutal on the
rest of the Wellington attack.
Earlier, Grant Elliott had provided good support to Taylor
with a knock of 49 not out from 31 balls.
Otago now have 10 points on the HRV Cup table and are joint
top with Canterbury and Auckland.
Canterbury easily won their abbreviated game against Northern
Districts in Mt Maunganui this afternoon.
Only five overs each side were possible after heavy rain in
the Bay of Plenty region and Canterbury posted a competitive
total of 49-4 in their five overs thanks largely to Brendon
Diamanti, who hit 29 off 13 balls.
Northern were never in the hunt, limping through to 33-3 in
their five overs.
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